Possible
by GliderPilot
Summary: Doctor Strange saw fourteen million, six hundred and five possible outcomes. He picked one.


Yeah, you know the drill.

Doctor Strange saw fourteen million, six hundred and five possible outcomes. He picked one.

This is the same universe as Eternal and Finite, but stands alone.

X

1-2,052,680

"_I went looking through the cosmos for some magic, colorful Infinity Stone things. Didn't find any."_

Which was just as well.

In many of the outcomes, Thanos was soundly defeated. The Avengers rejoiced, the world never noticed anything beyond _another_ weird alien spaceship, and life moved on. The intact Infinity Gauntlet remained in the compound to be used as they saw fit for whichever new threats surfaced, which they inevitably would.

Every _snap_ of the Gauntlet cost one of Earth's greatest heroes years of life. They forgot how to use their other talents, and soon enough, they'd become completely dependent on a weapon that was far beyond what the battle required.

The dust always settled sooner or later, but the damage was done. Earth was weakened by collateral damage and losing one of its heroes, and the attacking force had no chance to surrender or even switch sides, which had been one of their best recruiting methods. The number of deaths was completely unacceptable, at least to Strange. He'd become a doctor out of both the rush of preserving life and the thought, somewhere in there, that life was sacred.

That was no victory.

X

2,052,681-2,439,359

Strange next considered the destruction of the Infinity Gauntlet itself. No corruption, no lazy dependence on the building blocks of the universe. Thanos could be defeated, killed properly, but the stones were scattered through the far reaches of the universe. The Avengers sought them, with the intent on destroying them to prevent any future weaponization, but it was a painfully feeble waste of time that took away from the immediate battles. Eventually, they always gave up.

Eons later, long past any of their lifetimes, the stones would invariably be uncovered by one being or another. No one could resist their pull. No one even knew what they were, other than "If you use it, weird things happen."

The Stones had to be destroyed.

X

2,439,360-3,195,714

After the battle with Thanos was finished, a nice new battle-axe cleaving his head from his neck, everyone involved gathered together to determine what should be done next. The Mind Stone was the easiest, with Wanda smashing it to atoms after its safe removal from her beloved's Vision's forehead.

The rest of the Stones were disposed of in any of a multitude of methods the world could develop. Strange experimented with keeping one or another of them, or destroying them all, but it made no difference in the end. They never could destroy them completely. Conservation of matter reared its ugly head. There was only one way to get rid of them that would be truly irretrievable.

_Use the Stones to destroy the Stones._

X

3,195,415-4,528,184

_If it comes down to save you or the kid, or the Time Stone, I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can't, because the universe depends on it._

Strange puts his Infinity Stone where his mouth is, and it costs the lives of Peter and Tony. He's lost a bit of his own humanity, but he moves on.

He can't defeat Thanos in open combat. Trapping him in a time loop, which worked so well for Dormammu, proved impossible. Thanos had the Power, Space, Reality, and Soul stones already. They resist being cycled through more than a few iterations, and Thanos is soon free again. Other elements of sorcery prove equally futile. The Mirror dimension, also useful in prior combats, does not recognize the Stones and casts them out with their bearer. Severing the Gauntlet from his arm fails for the same reason, or succeeds and leaves vengeful Guardians with power they can never handle.

He will have to swallow his pride to solve this puzzle.

X

4,528,185-5,148,158

It's at this time that Doctor Strange begins to consider the unfathomable. Thanos wins. Half of the universe is obliterated. Technically, they aren't dead. They never existed in the first place. According to some, they were not harmed because they were unable to realize they'd been harmed. The actual damage was done to those left behind to clean up.

That was not true, and he knew it.

Overpopulation was only a risk concerning those species with a high fertility rate. Those were the ones for whom the destruction would be the least destructive. Thanos didn't and wouldn't bother selecting particular species to decimate. All of the endangered species in the universe were pushed closer to the brink. For most of them, it was too close to come back.

If it had to be done, it had to be reversed.

X

5,148,159-6,492,062

_We just want the Gauntlet. _

Maybe it didn't have to happen after all. They could grab the Gauntlet, load it with the Stones, and use it to destroy itself. That would take someone with physical and mental strength in excess of what anyone on Titan possessed, but there were those on Earth with the ability. They had to transport the Gauntlet to Earth anyway, to get the remaining Stones. Perhaps they were able to destroy them, perhaps they weren't, but in any case, the Avengers were not _allowed_ to. The powers that be were either greedy or terrified, and wanted the loaded Gauntlet to either carry out their wishes or defend against future threats. If it were destroyed, everyone who had a hand in that act was banished from Earth and unable to defend against future threats. If it weren't, the power would be abused by those who had no idea how to do otherwise.

They couldn't destroy the Stones themselves.

X

6,493,063-7,159,900

Using the Stones and the Gauntlet twice left them permanently destroyed. If they took the Gauntlet from Thanos after he obliterated half of all life, they could bring everyone back in fairly short order. Thanos was in no shape to fight. That was amazingly easy.

The problem came when they tried to move on.

Something _broke_ in between the destruction and return of everyone. Death was not working. It had no host. The universe could not manage if no one died when their time came.

They needed Death back.

X

7,159,901-9,105,243

He thought for, a moment, that he had found it.

The universe is divided, the survivors find their way to Titan, where Thanos had returned Death to the universe. There was a narrow gap, of perhaps twenty-four hours, between then and when he would destroy the Stones. They made it.

They brought everyone back. Death returned. It found a new host, and those who _died_, not just _vanished_, in the destruction were returned to their own time.

Or they didn't make it.

There was no way of knowing whether he himself would make it through the destruction. If he didn't, there was no way to ensure that the strike team would be properly timed. If he did, it still wasn't certain whether he would be able to manage it correctly. There were still so many ways it could go badly wrong.

The odds of success were just too low, and the consequences of failure just too high.

X

9,105,244-10,124,392

_Thanos, I've come to bargain._

They abandon Titan before Thanos shows up and weaponize the Time and Mind stones against him on Earth. They have a go at _healing_ Thanos, as it were, returning his mind and body to a time when he was less troubled.

A noble sentiment, but there was no way for it to work. There were too many repercussions, no matter what they did. Some beings cannot be redeemed, at least not in the land of the living.

Time to move on.

X

10,124,393-11,153,459

If the Snap happened within a certain timeframe, it reliably claimed Hope, Hank, and Janet. Only at one split second would it leave Scott trapped in the Quantum Realm for the next five years.

Some lessons could only be learned through direct immersion. That the Quantum Realm could be used for time travel was one of them.

A few seconds before or after and the whole thing would disintegrate. The battle had to last for a very specific length of time.

_Thanos, I've come to stall._

X

11,153,460-12,510,285

The Avengers would want Tony to help, but the battle with Thanos claimed him before the destruction. They do their best, with Scott and Bruce offering their expertise. They burn through the Particles and gain nothing by it. Even in those alternate outcomes where Hank or Janet remain to assist, they are missing a twist of Tony's genius that no one else can quite manage. Their attempts to time travel only weaken Earth's defenses that much more.

It is around this time that Strange begins to consider that he may need to bargain with Thanos after all.

X

12,510,286-13,012,520

The Time Heist is developed with Tony's help, and works perfectly. All the Stones are used to bring back the vanished. They are returned to the location of the new Gauntlet, or to where they were at that key moment, and all is well.

Death is still missing. It needs a carrier, some form to take while it claims each soul. For whatever reason, it's broken again.

A past form of Death needs to pass the torch. The next bearer will only emerge after the battle, with the Time Heist having freed him from his obligation to the Soul Stone.

Something in the Heist needs to go wrong.

X

13,012,521-13,135,647

The heist in New York City works exactly as intended. The one on Morag, less so.

If a former goddess of Death doesn't _happen_ to appear and kill certain of Thanos' soldiers, the Quantum tunnel is destroyed in the collateral damage. The battle is won, but branching timelines leave threats of every variety running everywhere at every time.

Something else has to go wrong.

X

13,135,648-13,579,255

Morag goes as planned; New York, not so much. The trickster and the goddess of Death escape to do what they will with the universe. They will be surprisingly benign as they find their own adventures.

The remaining Avengers, Guardians, and other miscellaneous beings go their separate ways after the return. Never again will they work together. A golden opportunity is missed. They believe that they will never have to worry about anything again.

When the next battle comes, they lack the strength to cope.

They have to fight _together_.

X

13,579,256-14,000,604

The Time Heist goes off with two hitches: one minor and one major. One of Earth's greatest defenders is lost for an Infinity Stone that will be returned within seconds and subsequently destroyed. That will always seem painfully pointless, but it was a necessary price.

Hulk snaps his fingers. The dead _and_ the gone return home.

The substitute Nebula opens a time portal allowing her adopted "father" and his entourage/army through into the present day. Doctor Strange responds in kind, opening portals to everywhere under every sun, bringing in soldiers for their final, massive battle. It's _glorious_, with only a small helping of sarcasm.

In all these outcomes, Strange himself is lost for five years. No matter. It will feel like forever, but he won't remember it afterward, no one will. That's not so bad.

If he has the humanity to warn Tony of his impending death, Tony will lose his nerve and they will lose. If Tony has the decency to give Thanos and his army a chance to fight back, instead of simply vanishing them, that will cost them dearly whether they win or not.

There is only one left.

X

14,000,605

Finally.

The stars align in every way. Tony asks him if this is it, and he knows better than to answer. A little assistance from someone long gone helps him do what he needs to.

All around, soldiers from every nation and planet and species join in a battle that will be retold for _generations_. An astonishingly wide range of beings works as a whole to defend the universe they love. They will know to go to each other for help should the need arise, which it inevitably will. All is as it should be.

There will be losses. They will be remembered. There is nothing more they can do.

Only one.


End file.
